The Internet is increasingly being used to conduct “electronic commerce.” The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communications links that facilitate electronic communications between vendors and purchasers. Electronic commerce refers generally to commercial transactions that are at least partially conducted using the computer systems of the parties to the transactions. For example, a purchaser can use a personal computer to connect via the Internet to a vendor's computer. The purchaser can then interact with the vendor's computer to conduct the transaction. The WWW portion of the Internet is especially conducive to conducting electronic commerce. Many web servers have been developed through which vendors can advertise and sell products. The products can include items (e.g., music) that are delivered electronically to the purchaser over the Internet and items (e.g., books) that are delivered through conventional distribution channels (e.g., a common carrier).
Although the use of the WWW is expanding rapidly because it facilitates the buying and selling of goods through electronic commerce, the WWW also makes easily accessible vast amounts of information that are not directly related to electronic commerce. For example, a public library may make its catalog of books available through the WWW. A person can browse through the catalog to identify available books on a certain topic. As another example, various news organizations are publishing their news articles on the WWW. These news organizations may or may not charge a fee for accessing their news articles. Whether or not a fee is charged, the news organizations may derive revenue from advertisements provided when a news article is accessed. The providers of such web sites typically want to maximize their advertising revenues.
To help web sites maximize their advertising revenues, an Internet-based referral system has been developed that enables individuals and other business entities (“associates”) to market products, in return for a commission, that are sold from a vendor's web site. Such systems may include automated registration software that runs on the vendor's web site to allow entities to register as associates. Following registration, the associate sets up a web site (or other information dissemination system) to distribute hypertext catalog documents that include marketing information (product reviews, recommendations, etc.) about selected products (e.g., goods or services) of the vendor. In association with each such product, the catalog document includes a hypertext “referral link” that allows a user (“customer”) to link to the vendor's web site and purchase the product. When a customer selects a referral link, the customer's computer transmits the unique identifiers of the selected product and of the associate to the vendor's web site, allowing the vendor to identify the product and the referring associate. If the customer subsequently purchases the product from the vendor's web site, a commission may be automatically credited to an account of the referring associate. One such referral system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,141, entitled “Internet-Based Customer Referral System.”
An associate may receive new catalog documents on a periodic basis or on an as-requested basis. After receiving the new catalog documents, the associate can identify the products that it wants to advertise and can add the information to its web pages. The associate would like to identify those products that would maximize its revenue based on the subject of the web page. In certain situations, it may, however, be difficult to identify such products. For example, a news organization may be constantly adding articles to its web site. It would be cumbersome and timeconsuming for the news organization to go through the process of selecting products for each article that will maximize its revenue. As a result, the news organization may select products in a random manner, which may not maximize the revenue. Even if content of an associate's web site is essentially static (e.g., an electronic encyclopedia), a product that may maximize revenues one day may not do so the next day. For example, if a web page contains an article about dieting, the associate may decide to advertise a book for a certain diet plan. If, however, a study is released that touts the benefits of a new diet plan, then many people may want to immediately purchase a book relating to the new diet plan. If the associate could immediately start advertising the book for the new diet plan, rather than continuing to advertise the other book, its revenues would increase.